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Apple and Samsung Agree To Drop Cases Outside the US
mrspoonsi writes Apple and Samsung have agreed to withdraw all legal cases against each other outside the United States. The two rivals have sued each other over a range of patent disputes in nine countries outside the US, including the UK, South Korea, Japan and Germany. A joint statement said the agreement "does not involve any licensing arrangements", and they would continue to pursue existing cases in US courts. The two firms are the biggest players in the smartphone and tablet PC market. But they have been involved in a bitter legal battle, spread across various countries, which has escalated in recent years.
Apple is rumoured to be introducing its iWatch later this year and Samsung has already released several models of smart watch over the last few months or so. I'm sure both parties will now be armed to the teeth with patents applicable to the other's watches, and the potential patent disputes between them likely more even sided than we've seen with phones and tablets. It makes very good sense for both parties to come to an agreement now so they can each concentrate on the coming shitstorm of fitness patents that will rear their head from all directions before long.
Would that not offer obvious evidence of collusion?
Only in the limited sense that two parties agreeing to an armistice are 'colluding'. Perhaps if they agreed to a delightful cross-licensing and then started suing every non-Samsuing android OEM into the ground; but if there isn't any licensing going on it's likely just a recognition that neither side has really gained much in the litigationdrome. Apple has won some; but not nearly the damages they wanted (and they've been more or less entirely unsuccessful in actually stopping Samsung from churning out and shipping large quantities of hardware), Samsung has at least blunted most of Apple's advances, possibly won some of its own suits; but kept all very large damage claims and attempts to ban devices that are commercially relevant away.
Without a clear legal edge for either side, they could keep slinging shit at each other; but it becomes an effort in throwing billable hours down the drain while other Android OEMs continue to put pressure on prices and Samsung's attempts to pull a 'fireOS'-style independence bid from being Google's pet board stuffer continue to mostly suck.
If Apple had actually managed to knock out a meaningful collection of Samsung devices or firmware features, or even just score some settlements of the size they wanted, they'd have much less incentive to stop; and if Samsung had managed to score a win or wins that conclusively got Apple off their back they wouldn't need an agreement; but neither party has. Apple likely has (between the number of patents and the number of venues for fighting about it) unlimited lawsuit fodder; but they haven't been able to make any of it hit has hard as they would like; while Samsung has been able to whittle down Apple's demands quite substantially; but has no chance in hell of getting a 'the court has proven that Apple needs to stop suing you now' decision.
THat advantage with software patents has now diminished due to the the recent supreme court ruling. Things like slide to unlock will probably be found invalid and samsung is currently challenging that as a result of the recent supreme court ruling.
That's because Samsung lost. Yes, they lost on their home turf.
In fact, Samsung internationally hasn't been on the winning side - they've instead been stirring up shitstorms of controversy. Because what patents Samsung does assert are ones under FRAND, and it's lead to many a jurisdiction doing inquiries about asserting FRAND patents in this fashion, including the EU and Korea.
It's more a truce than anything - especially since both Apple and Samsung realize that they're really just wasting a lot of time. Samsung's the world's #1 manufacturer of smartphones by a long shot, and they're seeing a huge slowdown, and Apple's partnership with TSMC means Samsung's semiconductor division is hurting as well since Apple can multi-source the most important parts.
I'm sure the US side would be dropped fairly quickly if not for the fact that they're coming to an end as well - let it complete and then announce a truce as well.
Company relationships are complex. Samsung, Apple, Microsoft, Google - you can bet that despite being competitors in areas, they have many, many cooperative agreements and even sales between them. Apple vs. Google is just a fanboy fight - Google and Apple compete far less and cooperate far more than you think. Even Samsung and Apple cooperate far more.
The truth is very messy, and not only is it never black and white, it's far more grey than you would believe. Anytime you see a real disagreement in the media it's almost always just a PR fight - behind the scenes they're still hugging and kissing each other.